STUNT SQUAD

Aka La Polizia e sconfitta (I)
1977
Italy
P.A.C. (Produzioni Atlas Consorziate)
Director : Domenico Paolella
Story : Dardano Sacchetti
Screenplay : Dardano Sacchetti, Dardano Sacchetti
Music : Stelvio Cipriani
Cinematography : Marcello Masciocchi {Gevacolor - Telecolor}
Editor : Amedeo Giomini
Art director : Carlo Leva
Original running time : 105 mins
Italian takings : n/a
Shot at: Exteriors shot in Bologna
Cast: Marcel Bozzuffi (Inspector Griffi), Vittorio Mezzogiorno (Valli), Riccardo Salvino (Brogi), Claudia Giannotti (Anna), Francesco Ferracini (Gianni), Simona Ogier (Rita), Andrea Aureli (the bar owner), Nello Pazzafini (the Tunisian), Ivana Novak (a policewoman), Al Capri [Eolo Capritti] (Berti), Tito LeDuc (Pierre), Beny Cardoso (Marchetti), Alfredo Zammi, Pasquale Basile (the Chief Inspector), Renato Basso Bondini, Enzo Maggio, Sergio Mioni, Paolo Ricci, Franco Salamon, Marina Viviani, Claudio Zucchet, Cesare Bastelli
And uncredited: Geoffredo Unger (Valli's Henchman)

This excellently unpretentious little film has one of the best villains in the genre, Valli (Vittorio Mezzogiorno), a hood who runs a protection racket and displays increasingly psychotic tendencies as the story progresses. That is not to say that he is a drooling fruitcake, his homeopathy is of an altogether steelier, ice-cool variety. However, the fact that there are definitely some crossed synapses in his brain is given away by the fact that he wears the same clothes throughout the entire running time. Admittedly, his threads are pretty cool, but that isn't really a good enough reason for such a distinct lack of finesse.

The story starts when he decides that a good way to teach any local shopkeepers who refuse to pay up a good lesson is to blow them to pieces. Disguising two of his sidekicks as telephone repairmen, he has them plant plastic explosives inside the phones of particularly resistant establishments. All it takes is for him to make a quick call to them and… kaboom. When he pull this trick on a local cafe it all goes to plan except for the fact that the owner survives, albeit horrifically injured. The police question him and manage to determine that Valli is responsible - however, before he can act as a witness some of the hoodlum's men break into the hospital and murder him.

In response to the general crimewave that's gripping the city, Inspector Griffi (Marcel Bozzufi) is given the go-ahead to form a 'Stunt Squad'. This special force of motorcycle-riding dudes are armed with the latest guns, trained in hand-to-hand combat and utterly devoted to their cause. Their remit is to stop terrorism and their first target is, of course, Valli (who has, in the meantime, also added cop killing to his CV). They soon manage to track him down to a deserted factory on the outskirts of town where he's hiding out with his budgerigars. Unfortunately, before they can capture him he manages to escape, and his plight is making him even more desperate (and hence dangerous).

There's a lot that's really very good about this film. It's a no-nonsense crime thriller, perfectly happy to restrain itself to its means. At the same time, it's vibrantly made, with a classic Stelvio Cipriani soundtrack (displaying some bravado flute playing). The car chases are fabulous and it remains resolutely engrossing from the beginning to the end. There's also an entirely random scene in which lots of drunk / drugged / stupid bimbos rip their clothes off whilst dancing to some jazzy laid-back grooves in a bar - generally behaving in a fashion that has been completely eroded by the insidious introduction of televised sports into contemporary drinking establishments…

One of the best things about Stunt Squad is the top-notch direction. Domenico Paolella had a pretty interesting career, starting out by writing film criticism (in 'Milano' and 'Mondo Latino' as well as his well known examination of 'Experimental Cinema') before going on to work with Pasolini and make assorted 'Toto' films. He contributed some decent entries to the peplum cycle (such as Hercules Against the Mongols (Maciste contro i Mongoli, 64) and the excellently titled Women of Devil's Island (Le Prigioniere dell'isola del diavolo, 61), before making a spy film (Operation Atlantis (Agente 003 operazione Atlantide, 65)) and a couple of above average Spaghetti Westerns (Hate for Hate (Odio per odio, 67) and Execution (68)). In this instance he manages to infuse the proceedings with a large dose of tension. Certain scenes appear to be almost too good for the rest of the film - most notably the brilliantly framed chase scene in the decrepit factory (which could almost belong in an art movie) and the murder of the bar owner (which is worthy of Dario Argento at his best).

The cast is slightly unusual, and all the better for it. Marcel Bozzuffi is probably best known for his performance in The French Connection (71), and lends a degree of gravitas to his role. Riccardo Salvino, as his main man, gives a more energetic performance, albeit in a likeable languid manner which brings to mind American actor Alan Alda. The real revelation, however, is Vittorio Mezzogiorno (a frequent collaborator of respected theatre director Peter Brook) - who actually makes his mad dog murderer of a character sympathetic.

It all ends with another of those strangely discordant scenes that grate disturbingly with the apparent ethos of the film. It's not giving too much away to say that the wounded Valli is beaten to death by an outraged mob. The same 'general public' who have been the victims beforehand have suddenly become the perpetrators - and in an underhand, cowardly manner which makes you actually feel that the criminals depicted have, in some ways, more honour than those who cry for their extinction. Similar scenes occur again and again throughout the genre, and seem to mix up a gleeful cynicism about the nature of the 'law abiding citizens' that would appear to be rather incompatible with the mechanical way in which the audiences' sympathies have been built up elsewhere.

Reviewed by Matt Blake